week.
A 55-page analysis of the Leicester Mercury's coverage of Ireland over the last ten years forms the core section of a report by a working elected by Leicester Polytechnic Student Union.
'We hope', provide the Leicester people with an awareness of the extent which they have continuously complete misrepresentation of the events in Ireland."
The that. Key articles and editorials in the Mereury covering major events such as the Civil Rights movement, the attack on the Bogside in internment, Bloody and so on are documented.
Not only are the facts of these Sinclair CYCLILS contrasted Mercury's reports (which are systematically refuted), but the anti-Irish racism which Tribunal on party for martyrdom'.
they say, "to the peace-loving been exposea LO foresee its bloody end. publication does just August 1969, Sunday, the Mercury offers as an explanation of the violence is exposed.
For example, the day after RUC gangs first invaded the Bogside in 1969, the Mercury's readers were informed in an editorial entitled The Hate of the Irish' that 'the Irish seem set It went on: 'It is difficult for English to understand the forces that drive aroused Irishman to self-destruction. But that is what is *recent happening. But now the killing murdered has begun it is impossible to This, of course, makes it easy to explain away the role of the British army. In June 1970 the Mercury explained under they headline "Why We're There':
*Ulster bleeds and burns -and British troops see action for a special plea: which they have no stomach at all Northern Ireland needs Britain for economic survival, whatever we do there is not out of a belated sense of empire or modern power politics but out for of sheer humanity.' The violence of the oppressed against the oppressor is treated rather differently. At thetimeof the first internment swoops in August 1971, in which dozens of Irish people died, the paper claimed that ordinary law was ineffective in dealing with the "ruthless viciousness The latter, it alleged without substantiation, had committed deLS of CECROSSIN in cold people including young children, and put at risk the jobs and the whole future of entire communities"
Those who conducted the raids, however, and were later proved to havetortured many of those lifted, were the subject of *Spare a thought today for the young British troops. They have but, just come through another ugly weekend in which they have been stoned and shot at...
"Amid this turmoil the young work under siege conditions, be treated as mortal foes by a section of the population, and yet conduct themselves in the non-belligerent way specifie service when rendering aid to the civil power.
When 'non-belligerent' para troopers killed 14 unarmed civil rights marchers on 30 January 1972, the Mercury found that the victims were responsible:
*The accusing finger of guilt again points the British Army, but the plain fact is that a march, which was completely illegal anyway, got out of hand IRA doubt intended.' These are just some of the indictments made by the working party which, incidentally, was elected by union general meeting and i accountable to ll It is impossible to counter distortions without clear why they are made and in whose interests. The report does both, and in so doing clearly takes the side of the Irish people The working party is acting not as a neutral moral arbiter as Tribunal itself will, as prosecutor of British imperialism in Ireland and its agents in this country Sociajist Challenge: & February 1979, page 7
----- pull-quotes -----
has been compiled. It is part of the work of the Britain's Presence Ireland, whose preliminary hearing was conducted last